144 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTURE. 



groundlessness of which it is expedient to show. 

 The Article runs thus : "In cuttings made in 

 forests belonging to communes and other public 

 bodies, the number of standards laid down by 

 Article 70 of the present Statute shall not be 

 less than forty or greater than fifty per hectare, 

 (fifteen or twenty per acre). When marking for 

 reserves, in those portions of forest which are 

 included in the reserved fourth of the whole area, 

 the number of trees to be preserved per hectare, 

 shall be not less than sixty and not greater than 

 100 " (twenty four or forty per acre). 



It has been argued from the word " tree," in 

 the second paragraph, that the number fixed in- 

 cludes standards of all classes. Now in the first 

 place Article 137 does not say so. It overrules 

 only the first paragraph of Article 70, the only 

 one which lays down the number of standards 

 to be preserved. In the second place, by the 

 expression "first class standards" is generally 

 understood individuals of the same age as under- 

 wood that is worked on a rotation of the length 

 usual in coppices. Now Article 140 provides 

 that the portions which comprise the reserved, 

 fourth of the total area, ought not, as a general 

 rule, to be cut except when in a decaying state, 

 that is to say, when every individual has become 

 a tree in the ordinary acceptation of the word. 

 Being necessarily unable to foresee at what age 

 cuttings would be made in each case, the word 

 " tree " was employed, by which must be understood 

 individuals of the same age as the underwood, 



